šŸ“£Margo KingstonšŸ’§šŸ”„ Profile picture
Ex-MSM journo who thrived till she didnā€™t. Citizen journo reporting the #IndependentsDay movement. CM, SMH, Age, CT, A Current Affair, LNL & #Webdiary alumni.
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Feb 28, 2023 ā€¢ 95 tweets ā€¢ 29 min read
There it is. Former DHS secretary Renee Leon said she and 4 other Dept secretaries were sacked by Morrison Govt after the 2019 election because they believed in ā€œfrank and fearless adviceā€.

#Robotdebt 23. This @lukehgomes 2019
gets it a little wrong - Govt decided to #Robotdebt aged pensioners from the start, put those savings into forward estimates, then exempted aged pensioners. Fiscal corruption, yes?

https://t.co/3rVQvQShCbamp.theguardian.com/australia-newsā€¦
May 9, 2022 ā€¢ 51 tweets ā€¢ 46 min read
Apr 28, 2022 ā€¢ 14 tweets ā€¢ 13 min read
Here comes @SuzieHolt4Groom!

An explosive report in Toowoombaā€™s @the_chronicle resets the #GroomVotes campaign, suggesting a big chunk of LNP and Labor voters have switched their support to her.

Will Garth Hamilton still boycott tonightā€™s candidates forum in Highfield? 2. For the @SuzieHolt4Groom #GroomVotes campaign backstory, my long thread. Starting a new one :)

Apr 26, 2022 ā€¢ 4 tweets ā€¢ 5 min read
This is what happens when @CUhlmann smears @Mon4Kooyong in a Tweet without context. Terrible loss for @9NewsAUS and voters. A debate in Kooyong with undecided constituents on Nine would have been free to air. But will Josh be game to agree?

#KooyongVotes 2. What the hell is wrong with @abcnews and @9NewsAUS??? Surely a local town hall with undecided local voters is not beyond them? Free to air much better for all voters. 3 times now Murdochā€™s Sky - Zali-Abbott 2019, Allegra-Sharma, now maybe Monique-Josh is bloody ridiculous.
Apr 22, 2022 ā€¢ 4 tweets ā€¢ 2 min read
ā€˜Liberalā€™ Party becoming the US Republican Party before our eyes. Ugly culture wars, glorifying guns, policies for sale to big donors, public service destruction, corrupt govt appointments, the lot.

True liberal voters need to take a stand now to save our faltering democracy. 2. The host of this gun-toting fundraiser for the ā€˜Liberalā€™ Party? The biggest supplier of guns etc to OUR Defence Force! Enough merging guardians of the public interest with private profit. Time to stop rampant Canberra corruption in Canberra! Vote to save decent democracy.
Apr 21, 2022 ā€¢ 17 tweets ā€¢ 4 min read
Iā€™ll do a thread on the undecided #WentworthVotes audience questions at the @spenderallegra v @DaveSharma debate.

1. Alllegra, who would you vote for in a hung Parliament? And what about the cost of living? 2. Allegra: Iā€™m open to work with whoever forms Govt. If a hung Parliament it depends what is on the table by both. Whever wins I will work across Parliament for action on climate change, integrity etc.
Apr 20, 2022 ā€¢ 14 tweets ā€¢ 4 min read
Iā€™ll do a thread in the #leadersdebate questions asked.

Paul: what will you do on housing affordability and to stop foreign ownership of homes. 2. What will you do improve the nursing workforce - especially Australians - and particularly in aged care.
Feb 18, 2022 ā€¢ 6 tweets ā€¢ 7 min read
1. Damien Hodgkinson is sole shareholder & a director of @Climate200. He profited last election by doing the donation books of several independents - $30k a pop. inc @zalisteggal. Charged $30k a pop.

Then went big, still on the @Climate200 Board, seeing ā€˜a gap in the marketā€™. 2. @climate200 denies conflict of interest in Hodgkinsonā€™s lucrative double play.

Arenā€™t #IndependentsDay campaigns about local capacity building? INDEPENDENCE from donors? No local would do it for free or lower cost?

@climate200 enriching mates?

smh.com.au/national/nsw/tā€¦
Feb 16, 2022 ā€¢ 4 tweets ā€¢ 4 min read
1. For those wondering what the ā€˜Voices forā€™ movement is hereā€™s a deeply researched essay by #BoothbyVotes independent candidate @instanterudite. Iā€™m not a source :)

#IndependentsDay 2. My @SaturdayPaper take on the ā€˜Voices forā€™ movement and itā€™s relationship with @Climate200.

#IndependentsDay

thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/ā€¦
Feb 15, 2022 ā€¢ 8 tweets ā€¢ 7 min read
1. An Australian second wave feminist icon, @takingalongview, with the perfect and timely title for her memoire.

Wendy has endorsed @spenderallegra for #WentworthVotes

personal threadā€¦ 2. I met Wendy as a university student when I was Quentin Bryceā€™s children-sitter. Quentin was Qldā€™s Rep on Malcolm Fraserā€™s National Womenā€™s Advisory Council and Wendy repā€™d NSW. Dame Beryl Beaurepaire chaired the Council.

womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0019bā€¦
Feb 13, 2022 ā€¢ 7 tweets ā€¢ 8 min read
ANOTHER opportunity for #IndependentsDay candidates to put serious donation disclosure reform on the #ausvotes agenda.

Indies completely justified in operating under current law, otherwise they give Govt MPs an unfair & crippling advantage.

Will the Govt pledge reform too? 2. Maybe an #IndependentsDay candidate or two might ask the sitting MP to agree that both fully disclose donations in real time from the hand shake. Wouldnā€™t that be interesting :)
Feb 8, 2022 ā€¢ 23 tweets ā€¢ 28 min read
1. @SenatorRennick not up for re-election. LNP chose him, a stain on the Party & more proof it swung hard fundamentalist right since the merger &ā€™crushed its liberal wing.

Ground zero for liberalismā€™s fightback is @SuzieHolt4Groomā€™s #IndependentsDay campaign at #GroomVotes 2. LNP now expects liberals to vote for Canavan, 2 on Senate ticket - despite his pledge to do everything he can to oppose net zero by 2050.

Canavan - a mate of LNP MP, is central to the push to convert #GroomVotes from a Liberal MP in Canberra to Nats.

My @SatPaper report:- ImageImage
Feb 3, 2022 ā€¢ 13 tweets ā€¢ 10 min read
Excellent backstory to the PMā€™s startling change of legislative policy on gay students by @LisaVisentin.

Iā€™d add the PMā€™s pledge during the #WentworthVotes by election in Oct 2018 to URGENTLY ban private schools expelling students for being gay. 2. And hereā€™s the blow-back to the PMā€™s startling apparent change of heart, reversing his veto on banning private schools expelling gay students in his Religious Discrim Bill.

Feb 2, 2022 ā€¢ 6 tweets ā€¢ 2 min read
Barnaby explosively inserts the Nats into the Liberal Partyā€™s crisis.

Itā€™s a woman!

I told her to Confess!

ā€¦ the PM says he believes no Cabinet minister wrote the texts & is ā€˜not fussedā€™ to know whoā€¦ 2. Oh, Barnaby denies he revealed the texter was a woman.
Nov 14, 2021 ā€¢ 4 tweets ā€¢ 4 min read
I met @renewhughes on Zoom during the @indigocathy gathering of ā€˜Voices forā€™ members in February, which became the @CommunityIndeps project.

We really met at the Canberra #march4justice afterparty - there were quite a few ā€˜Voices forā€™ founders there, Sydney and regional. /1 I was intrigued by her story - an architectural communications specialist on Olympics & ICCs locked down no work deciding to stop angsting about Craig Kelly & gather a community together to stand an independent. So #transitzone interviewed her in May. /2

podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/traā€¦
Nov 13, 2021 ā€¢ 29 tweets ā€¢ 33 min read
ā€˜Voices forā€™ community #IndependentsDay candidate launch thread-

Goodbye #HumeVotes hello #HughesVotes, where the local ā€˜Voices forā€™ group @HumansOfHughes will announce its community #IndependentsDay candidate.

Launch by sausage sizzle - love it! 2. The @HumansOfHughes community #IndependentsDay launch is at the Bonnet Bay football club on the Waronora River. And who do I see? @lindadoherty21 & I were on the @smh 2001 #ausvotes team; she now freelances for @CroakeyNews, run by former @smh health reporter @MelissaSweetDr
Nov 12, 2021 ā€¢ 20 tweets ā€¢ 24 min read
#IndependentsDay candidate for #HumeVotes launch day thread.

Breakfast at the Paragon Cafe, 1940 Art Deco spectacular, in Goulburnā€™s Main Street with @dginnivan before the launch of the @of_hume community independent candidate. Photo by our waitress Delia Lang. Goulburn Showgrounds, the Veolia Arena, cold, windy, rain spits, the @of_hume community #IndependentsDay candidate at the entrance shaking hands. Crowd growing.

#HUMEVOTES
Nov 2, 2021 ā€¢ 36 tweets ā€¢ 38 min read
Sep 30, 2021 ā€¢ 219 tweets ā€¢ >60 min read
731. Extraordinary stuff from Frydenberg, triumphalist Back in Black back boaster before last #ausvotes. SURELY with a record breaking deficit and covid widening income inequality the sane thing to do is delay or abolish the stage 3 tax cuts. Nope - letā€™s cut tax more! 732. B McKenzie demands the Clean Energy Finance Corporation finance carbon capture & storage research (a fantasy) to sustain coal mining. The mining industry hasnā€™t done it because it canā€™t be done. This is AWFUL, & she confirms thereā€™s STILL no bloody plan!
#IndependentsDay!
Aug 26, 2021 ā€¢ 6 tweets ā€¢ 4 min read
415. Frydenburg gave $25 billion to companies who made false projections of revenue fall to get Jobkeeper & didnā€™t require make they repay money not needed. $9 billion to companies who PROFITED. He must resign or get the money back.

#independentsday
afr.com/rear-window/joā€¦ 417. Funded by Clive Palmer, Craig Kelly is already spamming in #HughesVotes. And beyond?

@HumansOfHughes in the process of choosing an #IndependentsDay community candidate.
Aug 14, 2021 ā€¢ 41 tweets ā€¢ 16 min read
Premier and PM for Sydney deserted NSW regions & Nats MPs betrayed everyone in their seats. Only an emerging catastrophe in Dubbo-Walgett, where the PM broke his pledge to vaccinate Aboriginal people as a top priority, does Gladys require a permit to leave Sydney. #Comboyne 2. Wanna know how Sydney-centric Gladys and the Nats in her Coalition are, how dismissive of the safety of NSW regional residents? Check out these new restrictions, which would have been in place from day 1 if they gave a shit. #Comboyne